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THE LBB EDITORIAL TEAM
Laura Swinton Gupta - Editor in chief - laura@lbbonline.com
EMEA
Alex Reeves - Managing editor, EMEA - alex@lbbonline.com
Olivia Atkins - EMEA news editor - olivia@lbbonline.com
Zhenya Tsenzharyk - UK editor - zhenya@lbbonline.com
Zara Naseer - EMEA reporter - zara@lbbonline.com
AMERICAS
Addison Capper - Managing editor, Americas - addison@lbbonline.com
April Summers - North Americas features lead and Canada reporter - april@lbbonline.com
Ben Conway - Americas reporter - ben@lbbonline.com
Tará McKerr - Americas reporter - tara@lbbonline.com
Jordan Won Neufeldt - Canada reporter - jordan@lbbonline.com
Abi Lightfoot - Americas reporter - abi@lbbonline.com
APAC & AUNZ
Brittney Rigby - Managing editor, AUNZ - brittney@lbbonline.com
*Maternity Leave* Tess Connery-Britten - News and Features Editor AUNZ - tess@lbbonline.com
Lilya Murray - AUNZ Reporter (Maternity Cover) - lilya@lbbonline.com
Tom Loudon - APAC/AUNZ Reporter - toml@lbbonline.com
Sunna Coleman - Asia Reporter - sunna@lbbonline.com
A Note From The Editor
If 2025 felt like the rickety-clickety climb of a roller coaster car towards the apex of the track, with its slow-burn holding company acquisitions and drip feed of AI, 2026 is looking like a let-gravity-take-its-course wild ride. But as you hurtle down the tracks, knuckles bulging and jaw clenched, know this: you’re not alone.
At a time of convulsive change, community is more important than ever. And so, at LBB, we see our role as a connector and protector of that community. Editorially, we aim to educate, to unearth the most useful stories and expertise that will help you navigate business challenges with your creativity intact.
We’ve always believed that we’re better together and that’s always meant building an editorial space for marketer, creative agency, production and post, media, and tech. Now, as old models dissolve and new kinds of businesses, workflows, challenges and opportunities emerge, this ideal of building a platform where different disciplines and expertise can share knowledge is more of a guiding star for us than it’s ever been.
With over six million visitors in the last year, Little Black Book has become a hub for the global marketing community to share and explore new work and industry developments. With a 45-strong team spread across the UK, Germany, Canada and Australia, covering 75 countries, and as the only truly international advertising industry news platform, we do really mean it on that ‘better together’ bit.
So, as you strap in for the wild acceleration of 2026, take a look below at our editorial toolkit for the year, which outlines global feature stories we invite you to contribute to. We’ve also got our member interview series, which you can download and explore here. This selection is designed to give you a feel for the breadth of our coverage, but it is by no means the finish line—think of it as a launching pad. We urge you to explore these opportunities and engage with us; tell us about the crucial conversation that needs to happen, the problem keeping you up at night, or the story you believe we need to unearth.
Finally, a huge thank you for your unwavering support and readership. We fund our independent journalism through a membership model, eschewing paywalls and heavy advertising, and quite simply, we couldn't be the global hub we are without you. It’s going to be an enormous, transformative year across every city and region, and we’re glad to have you with us to shape and stretch how we cover it.
Laura Swinton Gupta, editor-in-chief
New for 2026
On top of our monthly global features, we’re introducing regional features, to bring local insight to an international audience. When you’re checking out our Editorial Calendar, you’ll find more opportunities to engage with hot topics and showcase your talent.
What’s more, we’ve listened to our community and have added a slew of new member interview features to our toolkit.
AI Spy - 2026 Refresh of our AI interview series
Beat Brief: Music as Strategy
Indie Gold (Music Licensing and independent/up-and-coming artists)
Prompt Production: Commercial Filmmaking in the AI Age
Tech Tonic: Innovation Interviews
The Long View: Directors who Capture (and Keep) Our Attention
Viewmasters: DP Interview Series
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The content team can receive hundreds of news items to publish a day. They will do their best to get it published as quickly as possible but there can be a backlog. Most of this team is located in the UK, so please keep this in mind when you are timing the sends of your news. You can find the process for publication of your press here.
Need some advice on how to structure and write press releases?
We've got guides/templates for creative work, new hire, new business win, award win, and event announcement stories! If you don't have the time or resources to write your own articles, speak to our sales team about upgrading to a premium membership.
If you are a Standard or Premium package member, you can send all work for the archive to the library team at archive@lbbonline.com
These are features that LBB's Editorial Team runs throughout the year. For the most part, there’s no hard and fast calendar, these are features that we run on an ongoing basis and editorially we’ll be trying to balance out international representation and industry sectors and overall diversity. It’s worth mentioning that particularly for features like 5 Minutes and The Directors we are keen to use the platform to showcase female and marginalised talent. We also spontaneously do plenty of off-the-cuff interviews and stories that don’t conform to any formula. Inclusion in these features is not guaranteed. See 'Members Interviews' for series’ with guaranteed coverage.
5 Minutes with... Interviews with the top people in the international advertising, marketing and creative industries
Ad Astra - A rallying call for creativity, Ad Astra features are in-depth profile pieces about the leading lights of global advertising. This feature is currently limited to global chief creative officers and must be pitched to laura@lbbonline.com.
Behind the Work - Behind the scenes on some of the most exciting creative campaigns. These can be traditional film campaigns but also digital projects, experiences, and category-defying activations too. What we care about is the insight, creative and production stories.
Brand Insight - Stories and interviews with marketers about their brand’s recent direction and future plans. This tends to be broader than just one campaign. We are open to stories where we speak to both the marketer and agency about work they’ve done together but the marketer/client must be involved in the interview.
Dream Teams - Trust and teamwork are at the heart of creativity and the industry is bursting with incredible partnerships. We want to profile and showcase the tightest twosomes in the business – how you met, why you work together so well, and what you’ve learned from each other – and advice for people navigating their own working relationships. This can be art director/copywriter pairs, directors and editors; MDs and ECDs; experience designers and creatives; character designers and animators…ultimately, it’s all about those enduring professional collaborations and friendships.
Film Club - Production companies do more than just commercials and often their really creative short film projects get overlooked, so Film Club is a place to talk about new shorts.
Firebrands - Brilliant work just isn’t possible without brilliant marketers - but so often they’re left out of the creative conversation. We’ll be meeting leading marketers to find out about the journey they’ve been on with their brand, how they work with their partners, and their views and visions around the topics and trends bubbling up ahead of them.
High Five - A fun listicle series where creatives, strategists, directors and producers share their top five campaigns from a particular market or segment. It could be ‘5 Funniest Ads from Thailand’ or 5 Best Music Videos from March’ - it’s a great way to help educate the rest of the industry about what’s happening creatively. Be warned though, you’re only allowed to pick one of your own projects! You can download the layout guide with prompts for your answers here.
Into the Library - ‘Into the Library with…’ is a trip down memory lane with the most exciting directors working in commercial production and music video, and leading adland creative directors. We’re looking for these top creative talents to share 7-10 jobs that have meant the most to them in their career, from early experiments to bombastic blockbusters and everything in between. If possible, it would be great to get a mix of old and new, and one or two wildcards mixed in with the more famous pieces. One of our journalists will interview the director, talking about each piece in chronological order to find out what it is that makes them so memorable. This interview can be done as a call or via email, with the director choosing their favourite pieces and writing up their reasons for choosing them - please pitch to the editorial team if you’d like to put someone forward.
Making Music - Making music is a series where we talk to the composers, producers and supervisors of some of the best new and classic commercial soundtracks.
Trends & Insight - Stories with a bit more depth that don’t conform to any template.
Uprising - Spotlights on the up-and-coming junior and mid-level industry talent making amazing work and shaking up the future. One of the most popular features on the site when it comes to traffic!
The Vanguard - This is a new series where we sit down with the CEOs leading the world’s biggest agency networks and holding companies to find out about how they became the leaders they are, what it means to rally thousands through a fast-changing industry, what clients need and where they see the industry going.
Thought Leaders - This is our channel for opinion pieces. We find that pieces that are closely aligned with newsy or timely topics perform particularly well, whether it’s a big sporting event or a hit new Netflix show that everyone is talking about. If you're keen to share a piece for our Thought Leaders channel, get in touch with the relevant member of the editorial team with the angle you have in mind.
These features are designed to put the power in your hands. You can platform your talent and work whenever you like. And the great news is, we've devised the concept and format for these feature interviews already, so all you need to do is pick your talent, choose a relevant feature for their job role and get them to fill in their answers.
To take part, simply download the brief and questions by clicking on the titles below in bold. When you or your talent have answered, email the document and any images or videos you'd like included in the article to newsdesk@lbbonline.com for publishing.
There's no strict guidelines on schedule. We leave that down to you - but one hot tip to get more views and clicks is to spread the publishing out over regular intervals.
ALL DISCIPLINES AND COMPANY TYPES
Essential List - A fun listicle piece about the kit, culture and cuisine that keeps the industry’s creative folk going!
My Biggest Lesson - This is where experienced ad folk and production people can share the pearls of wisdom that have shaped their career and can help those making their way to avoid the same pitfalls.
My Creative Hero - This piece explores the creative inspirations behind the industry’s talent. This usually means non-advertising creative heroes, allowing participants to explore their broader influences.
The Work That Made Me- The best way to understand a person’s career is to look at the work that made them. Their first campaign. The campaign that someone else did that made them jealous. The campaign that taught them some painful but useful lessons. The work that they’re proudest of. This is also a great feature as it’s a chance to share older work and work from different markets that readers around the world may not have seen before.
Off My Chest - Something on your mind? Put pen to paper with ease with this Q&A series.
AI Spy (2026 Refresh)- As adoption of AI has sped up and scaled up across the industry since we first launched this interview series, we’ve revised some of the questions to reflect what we’ve learned in the past couple of years! We want to hear about experiences from the frontlines of creativity’s intersection with artificial intelligence - especially on how the technology is affecting your roles and outcomes, today and in the future. In the process, we want to learn more about how AI is rewriting the industry’s rules.
BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP
Bossing It - Leadership doesn’t come easy and everyone has their own views about what makes an effective leader. In this series of regular features we interview leaders, founders and entrepreneurs and creative management about their journey towards leadership and their own lessons and insights. Specifically for CEOs, COOs, MDs, Founders, EPs.
The New New Business- The creative industry wouldn’t be able to create without the people bringing in business and closing sales. As the industry evolves, so too is new business and sales. We want to speak to the people making the gears of the industry turn, whether they’re at agency, production, post, tech or media platform, to share their insights with those struggling to close the deal.
DE&I: Accelerating Change - We want to interview the industry’s DE&I leads to find out about their perspective and how the wider industry can take responsibility for transforming the industry for the better.
AGENCIES
Are You Experienced? - Experiential advertising is one of the hardest to write about - after all, you had to be there, right? One of the most intimate, engaging and visceral forms of marketing rarely gets its chance to shine. That’s why we want to give creatives, strategists and producers working in the experiential space the chance to really dig into the magic that they weave. This member interview series is all about giving you the space to talk about an experience you helped to create, to discuss the challenges involved and make it feel more real for readers who didn’t manage to get hands on with it.
Creativity Squared - A creative profile with a difference – psychologists have distilled creativity down to four factors, and we’ll be exploring those with copywriters, art directors and creative directors to get a 360° view of who they are and how they work.
Magic Numbers - Data-driven creativity is something that brands and agencies all over the world are investing in and banking on - but what does that really mean, what are the best practices and potential blindspots? This feature is for brand and agency data experts.
Problem Solved - This is a new feature about agency projects that go beyond campaign work and use creativity to solve business problems. These can include digital transformation project, product development, employee engagement initiatives, ecommerce platforms and behaviour change initiatives.
Planning for the Best - The intellectuals of the industry, planners arm their creative colleagues with the human insights and hard data to make sure their ideas are founded in truth. We want to celebrate the planners and strategists and pick into their processes and thoughts about the evolving discipline.
The Art of Account Management - A piece for account managers/execs to discuss the subtle art of bringing clients, creatives and everything else together.
Creative Marketing - We’re looking to talk to innovative and creative marketers who are the drivers behind brilliant work, to find out how they think about and enable great creativity.
What the Flack - A series profiling the communications industries’ communicators, the PR and comms leads and agency Chief Marketing officers.
Tech Tonic: Innovation Interviews - This feature is for the brilliant minds shaping the creative tech and innovation future of the agency world: the chief innovation officers, chief technology officers and chief AI officers (insert equivalent job title here!). We want to find out about your personal tech journey, explore the cutting-edge tools you're excited about, and understand how you're transforming creativity and solving client problems.
MEDIA
Social Butterflies - There are few areas of the advertising and marketing industry more fast-paced than social media. Between the big personalities at the helm of the platforms to the rapid adoption of new tech and formats to the always-on barrage of hot takes and spicy discourse. This new series is for the social media creatives, strategists and producers - as well as those working at the social platforms themselves - to share their insights from the freshest frontier of tech and creativity.
Media Matters - Without media, an idea is just an abstract thing with no audience. It’s the engine of the industry - and one that is changing rapidly. We want to catch up with leading media planners to find out a bit about how the field has changed and their take on some of the current hot-button topics.
FILM & CONTENT PRODUCTION
Camera Obscura: Production Obsessions - This is a piece for anyone involved in craft and production, from directors to animators, compositors to composers, cinematographers to sound designers. We want you to nerd out about an element of your craft that you are absolutely obsessed with. It could be a particular kind of camera lens or shooting format. It could be aspect ratios. It could be a particular tool that feels like it’s become your right hand. It could be a part of the process that you just always find incredibly fun.
The Directors - This feature allows directors to go beyond their reel to talk about their thoughts about the business of directing and how they like to work, giving potential clients and collaborators a clearer idea about their problem solving and working styles.
Meet Your Makers - Interviews with producers specifically aimed at production, post and service companies all about the business of content and commercial production, insights into an evolving industry and some career advice for those making their way.
Production & Technology - This is an interview series for producers with a passion for technology and innovation. Here we’re diving into the technological innovations that are changing production, or at least broadening the demands on and possibilities for production.
Producing Tomorrow’s Producers - This feature is for producers, particularly those in leadership roles (EPs, senior producers, heads of production) who are keen to develop the next generation of producers, make sure that skills and expertise are passed on, while also learning from the up-and-comers of the creator economy.
Production Line - Interviews with agency and brand in-house producers talking about the challenges making work that works while navigating and integrating new channels and technologies and helping brands to solve their problems.
Represent - An interview series with production reps, the industry's conduits between agency and production talent.
Sustainable Production - This is an interview series for producers with a passion for sustainability and who have been working to reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of their productions. It is intended to highlight best practice, share helpful pointers and also discuss some of the challenges moving forward. It’s a feature that’s appropriate for producers working in agency, production, production service, or even in-house at brand.
Prompt Production: Commercial Filmmaking in the AI Age - This interview series is for commercial Directors and Producers who are actively integrating generative AI into their filmmaking process. We want to unpick the new creative workflow, the new challenges of governance and IP, and how you are building the framework for a production future where the set is often virtual.
The Long View: Directors who Capture (and Keep) Our Attention - This series sees us sit down with experienced directors in the TV and film space to find out how they keep us hooked!
Viewmasters: DP Interview Series - Lights, cameras, lenses! Yes, this interview series is for the directors of photography (DPs) and cinematographers. We want to explore your artistic philosophy, your technical approach to light and shadow, and your essential creative relationship with the director.
PHOTOGRAPHY, ANIMATION & DESIGN
Animate!- Animators are the magicians of filmmaking - to animate means, quite literally, to bring to life after all. So we want to celebrate the animators who fill our eyeballs with pure wizardry with this series of interviews.
Picture This- In which we ask a photographer to break down one of their favourite commercial photographs, revealing the story behind it. It doesn't have to be a recent project, in fact, famous/iconic advertising image would be most welcomed here!
Style Guide - This piece is for any sort of image-making artist working commercially. It could be illustrators, photographers, graphic designers or animators. It best suits those with a really distinctive flavour and style...
By Design - We want to talk to a range of the industry’s design experts about their careers and views on what ‘good’ design looks like. This series is open to everyone from UX designers, CX designers to product designers and graphic designers.
PRODUCTION SERVICE
Silver Service - We delve into the global production service industry to uncover how these companies excel at problem-solving, adapting to challenges with creativity and precision.
Location Spotlight - Interviews and guides with production service specialists from around the world about inspirational locations and practical production issues.
EDITING & VFX
Finely Sliced - We speak to editors about the art of the cut and explore the knife edge between good editing… and great editing.
Making the Grade - The grade is one of the most fascinating parts of the post process so we want to talk to talented colour graders about how they practice their craft.
The VFX Factor - This feature is a place for the visual virtuosos of advertising, the VFX artists, to discuss the trends in their role: the technological advancements revolutionising the way they work, the beauty of ‘invisible’ post, and trends in craft.
MUSIC & SOUND
Beat Brief: Music as Strategy - This feature is for senior music directors, creative strategists focused on sonic branding, and heads of music supervision and music licensing experts who position music as a key element of the brand's creative strategy. We want to discuss how sound choices build brand equity, drive audience behaviour, and contribute to overall marketing effectiveness, moving music beyond a late-stage add-on to early-stage strategic input.
Indie Gold (Music Licensing and independent/up-and-coming artists) -This member interview is for music supervisors, licensing managers, and anyone passionate about using independent, unsigned, or emerging artists in commercial work. We want to celebrate the craft of discovery, the creative payoff of finding a unique sound, and how working with the indie world differs from licensing established, major-label tracks.
Sonic Boom - Sonic Boom is a series on creative and technological innovations in sound design.
Thinking in Sound - We want to delve into the minds of the industry’s fantastic music and sound specialists to show just how creative this part of the industry is. We want to really dig into what inspires you and how you approach your work, while also getting a taste of how the music and sound part of the industry is changing.
After hearing from more and more individuals who want to promote themselves, we have launched a selection of interviews that paid Pro Users can get involved in, showcasing their best work and getting featured on the front page of LBB, as well as populating their profile at the same time.
To take part, simply download the brief and questions by clicking on the titles below in bold. When you have answered, email the document and any images or videos you'd like included in the article to hannahb@lbbonline.com to schedule its publishing.
PLEASE NOTE: these interviews are for individually paid Pro Users only. If you are part of a company with free Pro User accounts, please refer to our Members' Interviews section only.
Pro Hello - Put your best foot forward and say hello! In this feature, we want to give our Pro Users the chance to introduce themselves to the rest of the LBB community.
My Creative Obsession - This piece is all about allowing you to showcase your creative passion, and what really makes you unique and special as a creative collaborator.
Expert Eye - You can share your skills and expertise with this feature, also giving you a chance to advise and inspire people with less experience looking for a way into the field
Live Free - With an open layout, this insight-based op-ed has a different twist to the rest. It’s about creating a space for freelance talent to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities that come with being a creative, strategist or production expert who is taking control of their destiny. Balancing business and creative isn’t always easy!
Super Bowl
Tell the Story Behind Your Super Bowl Ad
Our Super Bowl 2026 coverage will prioritise in-depth, pre-game storytelling – speaking with brands, agencies, and directors about the thinking behind the work, ahead of release and under embargo. If you’re planning any significant marketing activity around the Big Game and want to build a deeper narrative around it, we’d love to hear from you early.
Submit to: addison@lbbonline.com and ben@lbbonline.com
Every 2026 Super Bowl Ad
Agencies and brands – if your national Super Bowl TV ad is live or in the pipeline, share it with us so we can add it to the tracker.
Submit to: addison@lbbonline.com and ben@lbbonline.com
The Case for Nostalgia Ahead of Super Bowl 2026
From revived characters and long-running brand IP to familiar songs and cultural call-backs, nostalgia has become a regular feature of major advertising moments – something we saw play out clearly in Christmas campaigns this year, and are now keen to look at again ahead of the Super Bowl. As brands prepare for the 2026 game, we’re interested in why agencies continue to return to recognisable creative assets and reference points, what recent Super Bowls suggest about the value of familiarity when the stakes are high, and how advertisers are updating these ideas so they feel considered and current, rather than simply replayed.
Pitch to: tara@lbbonline.com
Deadline: 15/01/26
How Creators Fit into 2026 Super Bowl Advertising
Creators and influencers have become central to brand marketing, but the Super Bowl still raises a specific question: where do they actually fit? Ahead of the 2026 game, we’re keen to look at whether creators will step into starring roles within TV ads themselves, or whether brands will continue to deploy them more strategically around the moment – across social, earned extensions, and real-time content that surrounds the broadcast rather than interrupts it.
Pitch to: abi@lbbonline.com
Deadline: 14/01/26
The Experiential Super Bowl Playing Field
As the Super Bowl continues to extend far beyond film advertising, experiential has become an increasingly important way for brands to show up around the game. With Super Bowl 2026 set to take place in San Francisco, we’re keen to look at how brands are approaching experiential opportunities across the host city – from pop-ups and brand takeovers to live events, fan activations, and public installations – and where these moments add real value, connect back to broader campaigns, and create meaningful presence beyond the stadium itself.
Pitch to: addison@lbbonline.com
Deadline: 27/01/26
How Media Strategy Shapes Super Bowl Advertising
On the surface, Super Bowl advertising can look like a single, expensive decision – buy a TV spot and hope it lands. So, we want to speak with media planners and strategists about how brands are approaching the game as a broader media opportunity, from where and when to appear on TV to how that moment connects to activity across streaming, social, search, and live experiences before and after kick-off.
Pitch to: ben@lbbonline.com
Deadline: 09/01/26
January 2026
How Do We Close the AI Gender Gap in 2026
According to research, women are adopting AI at significantly lower levels than men. That means that more women (in general) may find themselves at a disadvantage or even shut out of the much-vaunted AI future. The brief asks: Why does this gap exist? How can businesses and individuals help close that gap... and, as a final provocation, could it be that those women who are steering clear might be onto something?
Writer: Laura@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 19/1/2026
Toil and Trouble: Are We Ready if the AI Bubble Bursts in 2026?
The tail end of 2025 saw not just the industry but the wider economy hover nervously as chatter about an 'AI bubble' gathered steam. With every corner of the business now structurally dependent on AI's promises, the brief challenges global leaders: How will you pivot to protect client work, retain creative advantage, and avoid the crippling 'tech debt' if the investment spigot suddenly turns off in 2026?
Writer: Jordan@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 9/1/2026
For Real Tho: Why Non-AI Craft is the New Flex
In an age when anyone can generate the most outlandish videos, eye-popping visuals don't necessarily have the appeal of exclusivity they once had. Instead, as analogue craft remains only in the hands of those who have developed mastery, do they then become the markers of prestige, quality, and luxury? The piece wants to speak to production and craft insiders as well as strategists about this trend.
Writer: Zhenya@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 20/1/2026
How Can We Even Plan for 2026?
With the pace of change quickly approaching terminal velocity, the idea of long-term planning is becoming trickier and trickier. Industry leaders are asked how they are keeping an eye on the big picture while remaining flexible to the rapidly evolving challenges and opportunities in the market.
Writer: Brittney@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 21/1/2026
Authenticity Versus the AI Influencer: Who Will Win Out in 2026?
The creator economy's success has grown out of authenticity, but creators are now competing with AI influencers and real-time digital avatars. 2025 even saw OpenAI launch its own social platform, tailor-made for the new generation of generated influencers. The piece asks what will win out in 2026.
Writer: Addison@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 22/1/2026
Jolly Holidays: Inside the Travel Brands Helping Us Beat the January Blues
The writer wants to speak to the brands and agencies advertising travel (holidays, flights, hotels, travel platforms, etc.) and giving audiences something to look forward to. It will cover the strategic drivers, themes, and challenges for travel brands in 2026 and how they are using creativity to address them.
Writer: Alex@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 23/1/2026
Forget the Culture Wars, Are We Ready for the Reality Wars?
As AI-generated imagery and video become ever more difficult to spot, reality is becoming an increasingly slippery creature. With targeting becoming ever more granular, serving up tailor-made versions of reality to different groups, what does that mean for society and how do brands navigate that? The brief seeks strategists' thoughts about reality bubbles, trust, and truth in 2026.
Writer: Sunna@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 12/1/2026
OPEN BRIEF for OPED (First Footers - what lies ahead for 2026?)
First footing is a Scottish Hogmanay tradition where the first person to cross a threshold after midnight sets the tone for the coming year. The brief invites the advertising and marketing world's "first footers" to set the tone for the industry this year via op-eds that look to tomorrow, covering rallying cries for issues, future-casting insights, and reflections on navigating the path ahead. Submissions should be about 800 words and include a headshot.
Contact: newsdesk@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: This has been so well-received that we are currently still accepting submissions
CES Insights and Highlights
January launches straight into CES, and with agencies and tech brands alike clamouring to show off their new products and platforms, the brief seeks insights and highlights that give a clue about what may be round the corner. It asks for CES attendees to share their biggest take homes from the tech festival, welcoming 200-word vox pop or CES diary articles.
Contact: Americas@lbbonline.com
What Does 2026 Hold for the Craft and Business of Editing?
The global commercial and music video editing landscape is being reshaped by new expectations around speed, technology, and project complexity. The piece asks edit house leaders what fundamental shifts they predict for the business model and core creative skills of an editor by 2026, and to share one critical lesson their team is taking to future-proof their work.
Writer: Zara@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 12/1/2026
Why 2026 Is the Year You Should Back a Breakthrough Director
With a tightening market pushing established names into mid-level projects, the commercial landscape risks becoming an echo chamber. Global production company leaders are challenged to make the case for their breakthrough directors, arguing that commissioning new talent is the fastest, most effective, and coolest path to culture-defining work.
Writer: Lilya@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 14/1/2026
How to Keep Your Brand Sounding Fresh in 2026
A brand's sonic identity must be both memorable and strategically dynamic to cut through the saturated culture. Global music supervisors and sound designers are asked for their essential 2026 playbook, specifically covering the two most critical, non-obvious steps brands must take to move beyond sonic clichés and leverage sound as a true creative and commercial differentiator.
Writer: Abi@lbbonline.com
Submission Deadline: 13/1/2026
February
Global
Let’s Get Real about Brand Love
As the industry undergoes massive changes, some of the old favourite debates are being cast in a new light, taking on a new relevance. No more so that the old ‘brand love’ debate, Sharp v Sinek. Do people really ‘love’ brands? Does it matter? And… does the idea of ‘brand love’ tarnish or taint our view of love? We want to speak to top strategic thinkers about whether or not it’s still a helpful idea?
New Romantics: The Wuthering Heights Effect
Roiling, tempestuous, torrid, erotic, messy, moody and stormy. The Gothic romance of Wuthering Heights sure ain’t minimalist - it just drips with adjectives. As a new (and controversial) adaptation of the Emily Bronte classic hits cinemas, we want to to hear from art directors, writers, directors, cinematographers and music and sound experts about how to embrace maximalist romance.
Why Small is Beautiful in the Age of the Mega Merger
With the advertising industry dominated by a shrinking number of growing holding companies, you’d be forgiven for thinking that big is everything. But a new counterbalance is gaining ground, a mass of micro agencies, loose collectives and big dog lone wolves. Can this alternative give clients something new?
Americas
Special topic: Super Bowl; Black History Month
Strategy: Strategy in the Age of Uncertainty
Nothing in the industry is standing still – not consumer behaviour, not media, not budgets, and certainly not AI. So how do strategists make confident decisions when the variables won’t stay put? We ask strategy leaders how their role is evolving and what it really takes to plan in permanent flux.
Music: Why Nostalgia Still Sounds So Good
As brands increasingly revisit familiar eras and emotional cues, we explore how nostalgia is influencing music decisions in advertising today, and what music supervisors and composers make of its growing presence in the industry.
Asia
Special topic: Chinese New Year/Spring Festival
Media
Editing & VFX
AUNZ
Tech/innovation/social: Here’s the Social Platforms Plans For AUNZ in 2026
With Australia’s social media ban for under 16s now in place, a complex regulatory environment, ever-evolving social trends, and advertising spend still firmly favouring the creator economy, there’s a lot facing social platforms in the regions. We want to speak to execs across the main players, and social strategists, about what 2026 has in store for the platforms and how they plan to invest in the region in 2026.
Tech/innovation: The Ad-Tech Startups Shaping What’s Next in AUNZ
From Tracksuit to Mutinex, Springboards to Ideally, AUNZ has been a hotbed of ad-tech innovation in recent years. What’s the state of play for the startups raising, scaling, and expanding internationally? What are their top priorities? And how are they investing in building their brands to grab the attention of agencies and marketers?
Creativity: AUNZ’s Small Creative Shops on the Work They Want to Make This Year
Off the back of a year of fresh indie entrants springing up left, right, and centre, and more top brands choosing indie partners or centring them in their agency villages, we want to know what the up-and-coming indies want to achieve this year. What are their creative goals? What kind of work are agencies in Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Wellington doing? And how do they balance market ambitions with national or global ambitions?
EMEA
Production: The Directors Bringing Documentary Grit to Commercial Campaigns
We’re moving beyond the aesthetic of ‘shaky cam’ to the heart of the matter: authenticity. As brands increasingly look to borrow the trust inherent in documentary filmmaking, we want to profile the directors who genuinely know how to capture real life. This showcase is about the filmmakers who can navigate the ethics of filming real people, build intimacy on a tight schedule, and uncover a narrative that feels unscripted yet on-brand. We’re looking for production companies to pitch directors with a true documentary background or a reel defined by human truth.
Inhouse: From Shop Floor to Creative Dept: How Brand Immersion Sparks Ideas
It’s advertising folklore that Sir John Hegarty found the legendary line ‘Vorsprung durch Technik’ not in a boardroom, but on a peeling poster in an Audi factory. For in-house agencies, that level of immersion isn't a rare field trip – it’s your competitive advantage. We’re looking for stories from in-house creatives and strategists who have leveraged their unlimited access to the "shop floor" to crack a brief. Whether it’s a conversation in the canteen, a walk through the warehouse, or sitting next to the product developers, pitch us the specific moments where being embedded in the company ignited a great idea.
March
Global
International Women’s Day
The Great Backslide?
With Linkedin’s algorithm skewing incredibly male, DEI defunded, a shifting political climate and a squeeze on jobs and benefits with the potential to hit women hardest, there’s a whiff of disempowerment in the air. So are things really getting worse for women in the industry? And, if so, how can we push back?
Woman to Woman: Advice for Navigating Your Career in Tough Times
As economic pressures threaten to roll back flexibility and DE&I gains, we gather candid, commercially-focused advice from senior women on how to recession-proof your career, protect your boundaries, and secure recognition for your contributions. This is not about leaning in; it's a practical playbook for maintaining power, pay, and progress when the industry starts to backslide.
Oscars 2026: What’s the Future for Cinema Advertising?
Ramadan 2026: Global Trends
Americas
SXSW Austin
Production: What Advertising Asks of Producers Now
Production has never been more demanding, with producers navigating tighter timelines, shifting scopes, new technologies and rising expectations from every direction. We ask producers what the job actually asks of them today – and how their role has evolved far beyond traditional definitions.
Inhouse: What In-House Work Teaches You About Brands
Working in-house gives creatives, strategists and producers a perspective on brands that external agencies rarely get. You’re inside the machine – the politics, the pressure, the compromises, the long-term ambitions, the commercial realities. We explore what that proximity actually teaches you about brands once you’re living with them day in, day out.
Asia
Special: Holi: seeking Inspiration in an Explosion of Colour
Strategy
Sound and Music
AUNZ
Media: Are Radio and OOH Still Underinvested In?
Despite distilling an idea into its purest form, many believe radio and OOH still aren’t pulling in the spend they deserve. What do top media planners, radio and OOH execs, plus senior creatives and marketers think – are these channels still underestimated, and does it mean there’s still an untapped opportunity to cut through, earn attention, win awards, and ultimately grow brands?
Media: Where Are Brands Really Spending Their Media Money?
Investment chiefs and their clients weigh in on how they are approaching the marketing mix, which channels are surging, and whether every campaign being omnichannel is a thing of the past.
Editing & VFX: The Emotion of Editing
How do you blend neuroscience and instinct to edit work in a way that grabs, and keeps attention? That understands how the brain responds to rhythm, pacing, and editing choices? We want to hear from editors and VFX professionals on how they make decisions that feel ‘right’, including examples, and ensure the post process creates an emotional connection with audiences.
Marketing/in-house: CMOs Who Used to Be Agency Side: What We Wish Our Agencies Really Asked
Plenty of top CMOs across the region used to run agencies – what has being brand-side taught them that they could never have known as an agency exec? And as a result, what does it mean they wish their agencies asked them?
EMEA
Tech/Innovation: The Adtech Innovations Actually Making Agency Life Easier
Adtech promises the world – efficiency, optimisation, revolution – but often just adds another login to the list. We’re cutting through the sales pitches to find out what is genuinely working on the ground. We want to hear from creative and media agency leaders about the specific innovations that have tangibly smoothed their operations. Is it a workflow tool that finally killed the email chain? An AI application that actually saves hours? Or a programmatic platform that makes sense? Pitch us the tools you can’t live without and tell us exactly how they changed your day-to-day.
Creativity: More Than Just Ad Space: When Outdoor Advertising Acts Like Art
Public spaces are battling a rising tide of visual noise and intrusive messaging, where a billboard can easily feel like an act of aggression. But in the hands of the right creative team, OOH becomes a canvas that genuinely enhances the streetscape. We’re looking for people to speak about the decisions that led to campaigns that offer an antidote to this clutter — blurring the line between marketing and public art. From hand-painted murals to installations that respect their environment, pitch us the work where you treated the city like a gallery, elevating the public realm rather than just shouting over it.
April
Global
Production Pulse: How Was Q1?
We’ll be checking in with leaders in production, VFX, music & sound to find out how 2026 is shaping up, what opportunities and challenges are present in the market and where the industry might be heading for the rest of the year.
World Earth Day: The Greenwashing Crackdown
With the EU's impending regulatory ban on vague environmental claims and the public skepticism, brands face a crisis of credibility where shoppers are mistrustful of any claim. This feature challenges marketers, creatives and strategists alike: How do you develop a creative standard that moves beyond legal compliance to embody genuine corporate ethics? And how can brands that genuinely do want to back green causes do so without attracting mistrust?
Dodgy Dropshipping, Misleading Marketplaces and Iffy AI: How Brands Can Protect Their E-Commerce Experience from Enshittification
While the shift to commerce-first channels offers massive opportunity, the tendency of some platforms to prioritize short-term profit over user experience—a trend known as 'enshittification'—is making shoppers mistrustful of all digital commerce. We ask creative commerce and digital agency leaders for their essential playbook: How can brands use creative technology, ethical CX, and transparent strategy to reclaim their channels and protect the customer experience from decay.
Americas
Tech/Innovation: What Adland’s Tech Crowd Is Geeking Out Over
Away from the decks and the demos, what are advertising’s tech minds actually excited about right now? From tools and platforms to side projects, hardware and unexpected obsessions, this is a light-hearted snapshot of what innovation teams are genuinely into in 2026.
Creativity: How Experiential Ideas Travel on Social
The best experiential work now has two audiences: the one in the room and the much larger one online. We look at how teams build experiences that hold up on social, and what factors make an activation shareable.
Asia
Production
Inhouse
AUNZ
Strategy: The Easiest Strategies We’ve Ever Cracked
Landing on an insight that feels both obvious and original, true but not a trope, is an artform. Here, strategists uncover the times it was a smooth process to crack the brief, uncover a human truth, and deliver a strategy to the creative department that felt instinctively right for the brand and its customers.
Sound and Music: Is The Jingle Back?
Aussie jingles from the 80s and 90s were memorable and iconic, now evoking nostalgia and a fondness for the brands to which they were attached. We’re looking for insight from music and sound professionals on whether the jingle is experiencing a local resurgence, how to create one that becomes part of culture, and the best recent examples of local work tapping into the power of an earworm.
EMEA
Media: The Unsung Heroes of Media Planning on the Art of Perfect Placement
In the debate between art and science, media planning is often reduced to the latter – a game of efficiency and spreadsheets. But as the industry’s top thinkers know, context is the ultimate creative lever. We’re looking for the ‘unsung heroes’ who treat a media schedule like a canvas, using human intuition to find culturally charged environments that algorithms miss. Pitch us the strategists who are breaking down the silos between media and creative, proving that where an ad lives is just as vital as what it says. We want to hear about the specific campaigns where the placement was the stroke of genius.
VFX: Speak Fluent VFX: A Guide to Jargon for Agencies and Brands
The last time we ran a "VFX Glossary" was in 2019. Since then, the world has changed. We have moved from "fixing it in post" to "fixing it in prep" with Virtual Production. We have AI tools, Neural Radiance Fields (NeRFs), and Gaussian Splatting entering the chat. This isn't just about defining words; it's about reducing friction. When a creative director asks for something "more cinematic," what does the colourist think? When a producer hears "we can do that in Unreal," do they understand the budget implications? This guide is about helping the two sides understand each other so the work gets better (and cheaper).
May
Americas
Media: How Creators and Media Are Colliding
Creator partnerships are no longer just content opportunities – they’re core components of paid media strategy. Here, we explore how media teams think about creators, how budgets are moving, and what makes these collaborations genuinely effective
Editing & VFX
Asia
Tech/Innovation
Creativity
AUNZ
Production: Up-And-Coming AUNZ Directors You Should Know About
In-house: Why All Creatives Should Have a Stint Client-Side
EMEA
Strategy: Route 1: The Easiest Strategic Briefs You’ve Ever Cracked
Sound and Music: Why the Loudest Ads Need the Most Silence: The Art of the ‘Anchor’ Sound
June
SXSW London
Cannes 2026; Cannes Contenders; Jury Presidents
World Cup 2026:
The Beautiful Game: The Craft of Capturing Football
Smart Soccer Strategies
World Cup Bowl: Can Soccer Really Kick Off in the American Marketing Scene?
Americas
Strategy
Sound and Music
Asia
Media
Editing & VFX
AUNZ
Tech/innovation: The Region’s Best Uses of AI So Far in 2026
Creativity: AUNZ’s Strongest Cannes Contenders
EMEA
Production: Europe’s Production Frontiers: Which Shoot Destinations Are Unfairly Overlooked?
Inhouse: The Best Reactive Work, Turned Around in Hours
July
Americas
Production
Inhouse
Asia
Strategy
Sound and Music
AUNZ
Media
Editing & VFX
EMEA
Tech/Innovation: After the Hype Cycle: The Tech that’s Hitting Its Stride After the Gimmickry Stage
Creativity
August
Americas
Tech/Innovation
Creativity
Asia
Production
Inhouse
AUNZ
Strategy
Sound and Music
EMEA
Media: Europe’s Most Iconic OOH Spaces and How to Use Them
Editing: UK Editors Who Could Be Your New Secret Weapon
September
Americas
Media
Editing & VFX
Asia
Tech/Innovation
Creativity
AUNZ
Production:
Inhouse
EMEA
Strategy: The Sharpest Strategists in the Middle East Today
Sound and Music: X British Composers That You Should Know
October
Americas
Strategy
Sound and Music
Asia
Media
Editing & VFX
AUNZ
Tech/Innovation
Creativity
EMEA
Production: Nordic Production Companies at the Peak of Craft
Inhouse: In-House Agency Creatives on Their Favourite ‘Small’ Parts of Campaigns that Complete the Whole Puzzle
November
Global themes: Christmas ads
Americas
Production
Inhouse
Asia
Strategy
Sound and Music
AUNZ
Media
Editing & VFX
EMEA
Tech/Innovation: Scroll Stoppers: UK Platform Leaders Pick Their Favourite Work of the Year
Creativity: First Metal: The German Talent Who Won Their Debut Awards This Year
December
Americas
Tech/Innovation
Creativity
Asia
Production
Inhouse
AUNZ
Strategy
Sound and Music
EMEA
Media: UK Media Planners on the Most Innovative Channel Use this Christmas
VFX: European VFX Studios on their Most Impressive Jobs this Year
